It’s A Small World After All
Early in my career I worked at WordPerfect Corporation. They were famous for their word processor. I worked on their email product. It was misnamed WordPerfect Office.
It was back in the 1980s. WordPerfect was known for having versions that ran on multiple platforms. Interestingly, Windows wasn’t one of them. It would be several years before Windows even became a product.
The two big platforms were DOS, running on a PC and Apple, running on . . .well Apple. WordPerfect Office also had versions that ran on multiple platforms.
One of the big challenges in those days prior to the internet was getting files transferred and converted from one platform to another. The files were compatible, but the conversion process was complicated and expensive.
That was prior to when WordPerfect Office started supporting multiple servers. It was the beginning of our worldwide email system. See, when you emailed a file from Office running on a Mac to Office running on a PC, the file got automatically converted. Simply and easily.
I had a similar experience this week.
We did a virtual security visit to our site in India. We were all happily ensconced in our home office. We had video going, but we also need someone on site with a camera so we could see the facility. We had a slight problem getting our local employees to join the meeting.
I was actually talking to them over Facebook Messenger. It’s about 12 hours difference between Utah and India, so it was the middle of the night where they were. They were working those hours, but trying to coordinate was a problem.
Tell you what, I’ll give you the meeting information over Messenger and you can. . .
No, I couldn’t. I have no idea how to get connected to a Microsoft Teams meeting from India. I don’t even know the country code. But, do you know who does know how to do all that?
Yep, our old friend email. I quickly forwarded the meeting request to our team (I hadn’t know which members would be joining the call.) And email did the rest. It gave them the link but also gave them all the local contact information for India.
The joined the call shortly after and it went smoothly. People from India, Utah, Texas, Florida and a couple whose location I didn’t even know. The world keeps getting smaller and smaller.
Stay safe
Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.
Follow him on
Twitter (@rodneymbliss)
Facebook (www.facebook.com/rbliss)
LinkedIn (www.LinkedIn.com/in/rbliss)
or email him at rbliss at msn dot com(c) 2021 Rodney M Bliss, all rights reserved
